Unplanned late circumcision and becoming a man

In Korea at my time, it was common for all boys to be circumcised. It was usually reasoned as having better hygene, better aesthetics, being preferred by women and most importantly "becoming a man from a boy". It usually did not matter whether the child had phimosis or no issues. Around puberty, many boys lost their foreskins. Uncircumcised boys of later age were commonly ridiculed and made fun of for their "childish penis" and "elephant trunk".

When I entered elementary school, my dad checked my foreskin and taught me about retracting it and cleaning underneath. My dad himself was circumcised and was very obsessed with my penile hygene. So after every bath and shower he would make me retract my foreskin and check if I had cleaned it properly. At first, I often didn't clean it due to pain because my freshly exposed glans was way too sensitive. So if I didn't wash properly I was given circumcision threats followed by "punishment cleaning", which involved leaving the penis covered in soap for few minutes and washing it off with hot water. There was also no exception to this when we were in a public bath. During the first months my glans was constantly sore, red and throbbing in pain but at some point the sensitivity went down. Once my glans got less sensitive, my dad told me to wear the foreskin retracted. It was uncomfortable at the beginning to have my glans rub against the cloth but also the foreskin would often roll back. This was how I discovered masturbation using my foreskin.

Fast forward to the last year of middle school. By this time literally every boy I knew was circumcised. I somehow managed not to get circumcised and could go unnoticed among friends due to wearing my foreskin retracted most of the time and my dad never mentioned circumcision again since then. From all the years, I myself also became quite obsessed with cleaning my glans excessively and aggressively. One time this went a bit too far and caused a serious irritation which then lead to balanitis. It was during holiday season and both my parents were working, so my sister, who is a lot older than me, took me to a urologist as a responsible kin.

When I entered the examine room, I undressed and laid on the bed. The doc's first comment upon seeing my penis was "Oh, you are still uncircumcised". It kinda showed how an uncircumcised penis was received in our society for boys of that age. So I was diagnosed with balanitis. I was expecting some kind of mild treatment but doctor said that I could get circumcised right away to fix the balanitis. Because I was underage, I had to speak to my sister about this. I told her that I didn't want a circumcision. My sister said to me that I should get circumcised because that's normal and my uncircumcised penis will be hated by women later. While I was hesitating and trying to find a way out, she filled out and submitted the agreement for the surgery without asking me further.

When I lay down on the surgery bed, the doctor came with a female nurse and treated the penis with povidone. Then anesthstics were given and doctor retracted and returned my foreskin several times as well as stretching my penis to assume how much to remove. He also said "You must be masturbating a lot. Your foreskin opening is very loose. Great that you are finally getting circumcised because it is unheard of for a teenager of your age to be uncircumcised." Unfortunately I can't tell much about surgery because I didn't want to see blood. But I felt some tugging or pulling and heard some scissor like cutting sounds. The anesthetics started to wear off about when doctor started to stitch. I told the doctor that it hurts but was told to bear it because it is almost done. Few minutes have passed when doctor said "You now became a men. It looks much neater this way." and showed me the penis in detail and different angles before wrapping it up in a bandage. The glans was fully naked and the cutline was some distance from my glans. My penis was throbbing a lot from all the pain it had to endure from the stitching.

I left the room and my sister also commented on me becoming a man and bought me a meal before going home. My father later asked to see my circumcised penis and said it looks way better now. Healing was without complication. Because my glans was already sufficiently keratinized from previous years and abusive cleaning, I did not have any issues coming from hypersensitivity. Pulling on the sutures was somewhat uncomfortable but was bearable. I ended up having moderately high and tight cut. When flaccid, my glans corona is completely free. At first, I hated being circumcised because it was done on me against my wish. But over the years, I really came to like the tight cut and am thankful to my sister who "forced" me to be circumcised.

Seong (35)